The Portland Streetcar received a $1.1 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration this week to speed up plans on a proposed 2.3-mile extension through Northwest Portland as well as a separate proposal to bring the transit line to the Hollywood District in Northeast Portland.

The federal government included Portland on a list of more than a dozen Transit-Oriented Development planning projects to receive grants this year. Metro, the regional government, submitted the application.

The money means the transit project has already caught the federal government’s eye even before a route is finalized. Portland City Council approved $370,000 this year to study the best route for the estimated $80 million extension. That work is ongoing.

In a statement, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said the grant would allow Portland to “set an example for the nation in reducing carbon emissions as we grow our economy and address the housing crisis.”

While the precise Northwest streetcar route isn’t finalized, it is expected to jut north from the existing streetcar line along Northwest 18th and 19th Avenues before heading west on York and Wilson streets. The line, which appears on Metro’s long-range transportation project list, would run through the 22-acre industrial ESCO site recently sold to a Scottish company. The streetcar would terminate at Montgomery Park and run in a loop.

Long-range plans also include studying a streetcar expansion into the Hollywood District in Northeast Portland, that $70 million plan is also in Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan.

Andrew Plambeck, Portland Streetcar spokesman, said the Montgomery Park route was a work in progress but the grant money will allow the city and streetcar to dive into planning on the other side of the Willamette River as well.

That will allow the city’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability to look at potential zoning changes through the Northwest territory as well as the Hollywood District. Planners will also look at traffic impacts.

“The eastside is a lot more of an open question,” Plambeck said of the route.

The federal government awarded $16.6 million in grants to 20 projects across the country.